Category Archives: Knowing Him

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May 1, 2017

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Attitudes & Behavior, Bible Stories, Knowing Him, Obedience, Salvation: A New You, Temptation & Sin

GREEN-EYED MONSTER

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud. [1 Corinthians 13:4 (NLT)]

So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. [1 Peter 2:1 (NLT)]

tyrannosaurus rex Jealousy – that green-eyed monster – certainly caused a lot of problems throughout the Bible. The first case of sibling rivalry occurred when Cain, jealous that God approved his brother’s sacrifice but not his, killed Abel. Saul was jealous of David’s popularity and battles were fought, the Jews slandered Paul and Silas because they were jealous of the large crowds that gathered to hear them preach, Jacob was jealous of Esau’s relationship with Isaac, Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery out of jealousy and the prodigal’s brother became jealous when his father threw a party for the black sheep of the family.

“Don’t be jealous,” was often the response when any of us kids complained to our parents about what seemed preferential treatment for a sibling or when we expressed a desire for someone else’s possessions. Knowing jealousy was clearly wrong, I was confused during church services when I read, “For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God,” in my prayer book. Was jealously a privilege denied me but given to God? If it was OK for Him to be jealous why couldn’t I be a bit jealous of Becky’s new baby doll or that my sister got all the new clothes while I got the hand-me-downs? Granted, that was a child’s reasoning, but it can be difficult to reconcile God’s jealousy with the Bible’s many commands not to be jealous.

When they were given the Ten Commandments, the Israelites had just spent over 400 years in Egypt, a land of many gods. They had no problem when Yahweh told them to worship Him. Their problem arose because the God of the Israelites didn’t want to be one of many gods; He was to be their only God! He didn’t want to share their affections with anything or anyone else. Unlike the Israelites, we’re not tempted to worship Baal, Osiris, Asherah, or the sun god Ra. Nevertheless, we have a jealous God who continues to insist upon our exclusive loyalty to him. He won’t tolerate our fickle affections to cause us to worship at the altars of money, power, fame, technology, success, materialism, youth, sex, or self.

God has everything and needs nothing but He is jealous of the only things we have that He doesn’t—our affection, worship, honor and service—things that must be freely given by us to Him. As in a marriage, God wants an exclusive relationship with us—nothing and no one is to take priority over Him. Although some translations use the word “zealous” instead of “jealous”, there is no word in our limited human vocabulary that can fully describe God’s amazing, all-encompassing and intense love and desire for us. We are His and He is ours and God simply wants what is due to Him—our all.

You must worship no other gods, for the Lord, whose very name is Jealous, is a God who is jealous about his relationship with you. [Exodus 34:14 (NLT)]

The Lord your God is a devouring fire; he is a jealous God. [Deuteronomy 4:24 (NLT)]

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April 19, 2017

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Faith & Hope, God's Grace & Love, God's Word: The Bible, Knowing Him, Prayer, Trusting God, Wisdom & Guidance

WHAT’S YOUR QUESTION?

I pray that the glorious Father, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know Christ better. Then you will have deeper insight. You will know the confidence that he calls you to have and the glorious wealth that God’s people will inherit. [Ephesians 1:17-18 (ESV)]

I received an email regarding a not yet released Christian movie about a journalist who has the opportunity to interview someone who claims to be God. The email posed an interesting question: “If you could interview God, what would you ask?”

day lilyAn interview with God would appear to be a journalist’s dream opportunity! As I started thinking of questions, I realized I wouldn’t want to know the answers for many. I don’t want to know when or how I’ll die and I certainly wouldn’t want to be privy to that information about anyone else. I wouldn’t want to know exactly what will become of friends who don’t believe or who will go where at judgment. A friend said he might ask how he was doing but, fully aware of his failings, realized he probably wouldn’t want to hear God’s answer. Some friends in Chicago might want to ask Him about the Cubs but, unless they were gamblers, knowing the answer would be a season spoiler. There is much that God could tell me that I wouldn’t want to know because I could never live with the weight of His answers.

On the other hand, many of God’s answers would be amazingly profound in their simplicity. If I did ask when I would die, His answer would be “Never” since He’s already given me eternal life. If I asked how He could possibly love me, His answer would be, “Because I am love and you’re my child.” If I asked how he managed creation, He might answer, “With a word!” If I asked what proof there is of His existence, He’d remind me to open my eyes and see the proof in a sunrise, sunset, butterfly or flower. When asked how He came to be, He’d reply that He’s always been and forever will be. If I dared ask why people suffer, He would remind me that Job already asked that one. He’d probably add, “You wouldn’t understand!” which is correct, because I wouldn’t. Conceivably, many of His answers would consist of only one word—such as listen, sacrifice, love, obey, trust, believe, share, witness, care and forgive. If I asked what I should know, He’d tell me I already had everything I truly needed to know in the Bible, his love letter to us, and then remind me to spend more time reading it. Fortunately, there’s no need to make an appointment for a formal interview with God; we can interview Him every day in prayer!

Thank you, God, for the privilege of reading your word and coming to you in prayer.

Our supreme need, our only need, is to know God, the living God, and the power of His might. [Martyn Lloyd-Jones]

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. [Romans 1:20 (ESV)]

Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.” [Jeremiah 9:23-24 (ESV)]

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April 11, 2017

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Attitudes & Behavior, Bible Stories, God's Grace & Love, Holidays & Holy Days, Holy Spirit, Knowing Him, Obedience, Peace of God, Salvation: A New You, Temptation & Sin

TECHNICALITIES (Passover – Part 2)

Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace. [Romans 6:14 (NLT)]

great egret - breeding loresSince Jews are prohibited from possessing any food products containing leavening (chametz) during Passover, a Muslim Arab-Israeli man in Abu Ghosh now owns most of the bread, pastries and beer in Israel. As they have for many years, Israel’s two chief rabbis sold all of the leaven food from state-owned companies, the prison system, and the national emergency stores to him. He symbolically purchased the chametz for the duration of Passover by making a small down payment. Having promised to pay an enormous sum at the end of Passover, at week’s end he will tell the rabbis that he can’t pay up, the deal will be canceled, his down payment returned, and Israel again will own its yeast-laden products. Here in the U.S., some Jewish families “sell” their chametz to non-Jewish friends and then put the food in an out-of-the way cupboard. Technically, while still on their property, it’s not really theirs because they’ve “leased” the cupboard to the Gentile buyer. After Passover, the lease expires and the food is sold back to its original owner. While this may circumvent the law, I’m not sure it’s what God had in mind when He commanded, “There must be no yeast bread or any yeast at all found within the borders of your land during this time.” [Exodus 13:7]

Finding ingenious ways to sidestep rules and regulations is not limited to Judaism; we all do it. Technically, we’re not texting while driving—we’re texting while stopping at a red light! In principle, the dog is on a leash even when he’s dragging it on the ground or carrying it in his mouth. In 2007, a Minnesota bar got around the smoking ban by using a technicality in the law that allowed actors to smoke in their roles. The bar announced their staging of a continuous improvisational play. Every customer of the bar would be an actor taking a role in the “play” and, therefore, smoking was permitted! Teenagers have a special knack for getting around parental and school rules. It’s part of their make-up to think outside the box to outwit authority. Mankind will find every technicality, loophole, ambiguity, and grey area to circumvent laws and regulations.

Imagine God’s frustration while watching his children sidestep and disobey His law. A covenant of law requires complete obedience and, frankly, try as we might, we just can’t make the cut. We see rules and regulations as an infringement and prohibitions seem to increase our desire to do just that thing. Fortunately, rather than a covenant of law, Christians are under a covenant of grace and freed from the Old Testament rules and regulations. In grace, our salvation doesn’t come from following rules or doing the right thing and God accepts the less than perfect. It is our sincere belief rather than our faultless behavior that saves us. We have no need for sidestepping, semantics, and technicalities because obedience to rules is not what gives us eternal life and sin won’t cause us to lose it. Grace, however, is not license to sin; it is a license to live as God intended and follow the spirit of His law through the power of the Holy Spirit.

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. [Romans 8:1-3 (NLT)]

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April 7, 2017

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Attitudes & Behavior, Faith & Hope, Fear & Doubt, God's Grace & Love, God's Promises, God's Word: The Bible, Knowing Him, Trusting God

WHEN BELIEF BECOMES FAITH

trapeze
You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless? [James 2:19-20 (NLT)]

When we visited our grandchildren in February, I had another opportunity to watch my granddaughter fly on the trapeze. As she practiced transferring from her fly bar into the catcher’s hands, I thought of promises. The catcher assured the flyers he’d catch them and they clearly believed him when they jumped off the platform, turned upside down and hung from their knees. Knowing his promise and believing it, however, isn’t enough to get someone from the fly bar into his hands. Once swinging through the air, my grand had to act on his promise by straightening her legs, flying off the bar and reaching into emptiness. In that moment, when she floated in the air between fly bar and catcher, her belief in the catcher became faith in him. The catcher can only make good on his promise when the flyer acts on it. Those flyers who professed to believe his words but never reached for him were left hanging upside down.

The word “promise” appears 364 times in my NLT Bible. Scholars usually say that God made more than 3,500 promises to man. In 1956, however, during his 27th reading of the Bible, Canadian schoolteacher Everett Storms catalogued 7,487 promises from God to mankind. Although I couldn’t even begin to list them all, I know that God promises provision, protection, direction, wisdom and a love that will never fail. He promises peace, forgiveness, an abundant life, salvation, Jesus’ 2nd coming, healing and eternal life. Nevertheless, even if I could recite every promise found in the Bible’s 31,173 verses and wholeheartedly professed my belief in each one of them, I still have not shown faith.

Faith requires action; it requires us to live our lives in reliance on each one of God’s glorious promises. It’s when we act on our belief, when we live our lives in dependence on God’s word, that faith is born. God can never make good on His promises if we never act on them! Of course, since my grand is still learning, she wears a safety harness in case her timing is off. When we take that leap of faith with God, however, we don’t need a harness—we can get it right the first time we do it. It’s always the right time to take our belief and act in faith on God. Without that leap of faith that propels us into God’s arms, however, we’re just hanging upside down from the fly bar!

But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. [James 1:22-25 (NLT)]

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March 27, 2017

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Faith & Hope, Fear & Doubt, God's Grace & Love, God's Plan, Knowing Him, Nature, Trusting God, Worry

SPIDER WEBS

spider webs - corckscrew swampOh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! [Romans 11:33 (ESV)]

Last Friday, I wrote that I preferred visiting the enigmatic swamp to the impeccable Botanic Garden because it more closely resembles the confusion and disorder of this holy mess we call life. Nevertheless, hidden in its mystifying disarray of vines, trees, lichens, ferns and other assorted plants and animals, order can be found.

On certain days, when conditions are just right, beautiful orb spider webs can be seen in the early morning light. These amazing feats of engineering begin when a spider floats just one strand of silk on the wind to another surface. After securing the line, the spider crosses the “bridge,” reinforcing it as he goes and continues to drop and secure lines. Eventually, a nearly perfect circular web is constructed of numerous concentric circles with spokes going out from the center. A spider’s web can be anything from a few inches to six feet across. Ounce for ounce, spider silk is five to six times stronger than the same weight of steel. More elastic than rubber, it can stretch two to four times its length without breaking. Only a tenth the diameter of a human hair, a strand of spider silk long enough to circle the earth would weigh less than a bar of soap! I find it humbling that one diminutive eight-legged creature can construct a complex web from a thread we humans can’t even reproduce. There is nothing haphazard or chaotic about spiders and webs. Their amazing creations tell me that, unplanned as the swamp or our lives may seem, there is nothing random or haphazard about them—they are as much a part of God’s amazing and complex plan as are spider webs.

On most days, the spiders’ delicate webs are difficult to see; yet, even when they are indiscernible, I know they are there. God’s plan is much like that—sometimes it appears crystal clear and other times it seems undetectable. Nevertheless, there is a divine plan for each one of us! Whether or not I see their webs, I know the spiders are there and haven’t abandoned the swamp. Regardless of our perception of His plan, we can be sure that God is in control and won’t abandon us either. If we believe in the goodness of God, we must trust His plan (whether or not we understand or appreciate it). Like the spiders’ webs, it is intricate and sometimes difficult to discern. It is, however, a plan of strength, resilience and exquisite beauty.

God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass. [Westminister Confession of Faith]

In the infinite wisdom of the Lord of all the earth, each event falls with exact precision into its proper place in the unfolding of His divine plan. Nothing, however small, however strange, occurs without His ordering, or without its particular fitness for its place in the working out of His purpose; and the end of all shall be the manifestation of His glory, and the accumulation of His praise. [B.B. Warfield]

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. [Ephesians 2:10 (ESV)]

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March 20, 2017

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Bible Stories, Faith & Hope, Forgiveness, God's Grace & Love, God's Word: The Bible, Knowing Him, Salvation: A New You

THE WINNER

wild geranium
I find joy in the way shown by your written instructions more than I find joy in all kinds of riches. [Psalm 119:14 (GW)]

It’s March Madness time for basketball fans and my team is already out of the competition. Last year, however, my choice won—but not in basketball. After placing sixteen popular Bible stories in brackets, my preferred Bible resource site had its followers tweet votes for their favorite story to see which one moved forward. The choices were: Esther and the king, Jesus walking on water, the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, Joseph and his coat, Jonah and the fish, Noah and the ark, the exodus from Egypt, David and Goliath, Ezekiel and the dry bones, Jericho’s walls, Balaam’s donkey, Daniel and the lion’s den, Jesus healing the blind, Rahab and the spies, and the burning bush. Which would you expect to be the final winner?

Ezekiel and the dry bones didn’t make it past the first round (which I understand since that one sort of creeps me out). Unfortunately, the lovely story of Esther, up against the more familiar parable of the Prodigal Son, was defeated in the first round. In the final round, on one side was the historical account of the young David defeating the giant Goliath. The story is exciting, has danger and violence, and illustrates the supernatural power of God. It’s a tale of a brave young man who demonstrates the power of God with just a sling and a few stones. It tells us that, when we step out in faith, the God we serve can defeat any of the giants in our lives. Everyone loves a story where faith in God beats brute strength and the little guy defeats the big one.

David’s underdog opponent was the parable of the Prodigal Son. It’s a moving story with a not totally happy ending. After the younger son insults his father and foolishly demands his inheritance, he squanders it all. In desperate circumstances, he returns home with his head hanging low and is welcomed by his father. The dark side to the story is that the older son, the one who faithfully remained at his father’s side, is indignant and can’t understand his father’s compassion and forgiveness.

At first glance, David’s defeat of the formidable Philistine would appear to be the favorite. Nevertheless, the undefeatable youth was trounced by the Prodigal Son. When we first meet David, even though he’s young, he seems larger than life. He’s handsome, a skilled musician, and described as having good judgment and being a brave warrior. Among all of Jesse’s sons, he is the one chosen by God to become king. Most of us don’t resemble David nor have we been anointed as a king. We’re not heroic future monarchs, but we are God’s troubled children. As much as we appreciate a story of good triumphing over evil, we can personally relate to Jesus’ parable because we all are God’s prodigal sons.

The parable is a story of hope (the father is waiting at the gate for his son), mercy (the boy is not punished), love (he is hugged and greeted with a kiss), forgiveness (he is welcomed as a son, not a slave) and joy (there’s to be a huge celebration). Like the son, we all disappointed our parents and, if we were blessed with children, they disappointed us at times. Moreover, just as the son misused his father’s money, we have misused the gift of free will and squandered the blessings given us by our heavenly Father. This story reassures us that no matter how immoral, unscrupulous, self-indulgent or corrupt we’ve been, God welcomes his children home when they come with humble and repentant hearts. Once dead because of sin, we can come alive again. Knowing what sinners we are, this demonstration of the Father’s love and forgiveness is reassuring. The parable reminds us that blessings aren’t earned and obedience is not what gives us eternal life. God’s grace is not something we deserve but something He freely gives. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for loving and forgiving your undeserving prodigal children.

He has not treated us as we deserve for our sins or paid us back for our wrongs. As high as the heavens are above the earth—that is how vast his mercy is toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west—that is how far he has removed our rebellious acts from himself. As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him. [Psalm 103: 10-13 (GW)]

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